The glory days of seeing the Boss without going into debt may soon be over.
Fans of Bruce Springsteen, who built his music profession on his working-class image, are dismayed by the sky-high ticket prices for his upcoming tour with the E Street Band – the primary in six years.
The tour kicks off Thursday in Buffalo, and seats are going for as much as $5,000 apiece.
The four-digit ticket prices are a results of Ticketmaster’s system of “dynamic pricing,” by which an algorithm fluctuates prices in real time based on supply and demand.
The Boss’ manager, Jon Landau, defended the astronomical prices, noting the common ticket price is within the mid-$200 range and calling it a “fair price,” the news outlet HellGateNYC.com reported.
“It felt like a sucker punch,” Donna Gray, from Connecticut, told the outlet of not having the ability to afford tickets to see her beloved working-class hero.
The longtime fan talked of her special connection to the Boss and the way she looked to him as a mentor of sorts through the years.
“[He’s] someone whose catalog of music I take advantage of as a blueprint for my emotions, my life situations, celebrations and sorrow.”
“I even tied a song to my mother’s passing,” she said.
Others are equally upset and questioning just what Springsteen stands for at this point.
“It’s just so out of character for what he was. He was purported to be this guy who writes about Youngstown and writes concerning the working-class guy and offers money to food banks,” Kevin Farrell, a Sea Grift, Latest Jersey, native told HellGateNYC, calling the worth gouging tone deaf.
“Now with this ticket pricing he appears to be either unaware or doesn’t care that individuals are left behind – to me, and other people like me – we feel betrayed.”
Farrell told the news outlet essentially the most he’s spent to see the Freehold, Latest Jersey, music icon was $250 – a price that now won’t admit him into arenas like Madison Square Garden or Barclays Center, though, as HellGateNYC notes, it could get unideal seating at MetLife Stadium when Springsteen rolls through in September.
Farrell can afford to shell out the more money to see Springsteen, but it surely’s more concerning the principle, he said.
“I used to be so disgusted by your entire process that I said, ‘I’m not buying a ticket. That is just fallacious,’ ” he said.
The skyrocketing Springsteen tickets are an indication of the times. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé fans have also faced sticker shock when attempting to buy concert tickets.
Springsteen seems OK with all of it.
The singer told Rolling Stone last 12 months: “I tell my guys, ‘Exit and see what everybody else is doing. Let’s charge a bit less.’ … For the past 49 years or nonetheless long we’ve been playing, we’ve just about been on the market under market value. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been great for the fans. This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The fellows are there. I would like to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ In order that’s what happened. That’s what they did.”
Still, it looks like even Springsteen’s most deep-pocketed fans aren’t willing to cough up $5,000 to see him. As of late last month, Asbury Park Press reported that the $5,000 tickets haven’t been sold for the band’s North American arena tour.
One other super-fan, Julie Chazanoff from Mount Kisco, told HellGateNYC the worth for 2 tickets she got down to buy for February in Tampa, Florida, tripled when she clicked “try.”
“These tickets are insane. I’m holding some in my basket and so they’re absolutely a mortgage payment,” Chazanoff told the outlet.
“I used to be almost crying at that time.”
